A Hindu school teacher has been sentenced to eight years in prison by a Chittagong court in a case under the Information Technology Act for “hurting religious sentiments.”
The convict Debabrata Das Debu has also been fined Tk20,000 failure to pay which will lead to an additional six months in jail.
Judge Mohammad Zahirul Kabir of the Chittagong Divisional Cyber Tribunal on Monday announced the verdict in the five year old case in the presence of the convict, State Counsel Mezbah Uddin Chowdhury told the media.
Debabrata Das Debu was an assistant teacher of Hinduism at Chaumuhani High School in Hatiya upazila of Noakhali.
"The school teacher pleaded guilty and testified in court. Following the testimony of six witnesses, the court sentenced him to eight years in prison,” said Mezbah Uddin Chowdhury.
According to the case details, Debabrata made derogatory remarks on Islam in a Facebook comment on October 15 and 28, 2017.
He was later accused of “insulting religious sentiments” by some people in front of his school on October 31.
Police later arrested him and filed a case against him under the Information and Communication Technology Act.
On June 10, 2018, the Dhaka Cyber Tribunal indicted him and the case was later handed over to the Chittagong Divisional Cyber Tribunal for trial.
